Method of building concrete ships



A. RICHLEY.

METHOD OF BUILDING CONCRETE SHIPS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 31,1919- 1,327,739, Patented Jan'. 13, 1920.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED BICHLEY, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF T0 WILLIAM C. GONE, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

METHOD OF BUILDING CONCRETE SHIPS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 13, 1920.

Original application filed May 23, 1918, Serial No. 236,126. Divided and this application filled May 31, 1919. Serial No. 300,918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED Rionnnr, a citizen of the United States of Amerlca, and

resident of the city of Cleveland, State of Ohio, in the United States of America, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Building Concrete Ships, described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, that form part of the same.

The principal objects of this invention, described in this application, which is a division of pending application No. 236,126 filed May 23, 1918, for means for building concrete ships, are to insure the proper curing of the concrete under immersion thereby avoiding unequal contraction in the settlng of the concrete and effecting great economy in time, labor and materials enabling very rapfil production of thoroughly sea-Worthy cra The principal features in the invention consists in providing a series of separable movable forms fitted together within a dry dock to form a complete mold and adapted to be withdrawn in sections from contact with the finished hull in such a manner as to avoid injury thereto and further, in flooding the dock and the interior of the ship following the completion of the molding to effect the curing of the concrete in contact with water.

In the drawin Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view 0 a dry dock showing the arrangement and construction 'of the central supports and bents for molding the side walls of the hull, also the interior scaffolding.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional detail of the lower end of the leg of one of the bents showing the supporting rail and beam.

In the present methods of constructing concrete ships a great quantity of timber is required in constructing scaffolding for suporting the mold planks and these are very argely destroyed when the ship is completed, in their removal. The labor cost for reconstructing or building new molds is extremely high, which added to the loss of material, not only makes the method very expensive but there is a great loss of time.

According to the present method, I propose to entirely eliminate these losses and to, accomplish this result I propose to build dry docks preferably in a series. These can be constructed very cheaply with the use of sheet piling which is driven into the bottom where the dock is to be constructed, the piling being arranged in double rows 1 and 2 about ten feet apart and divided into pockets transversely and these filled with clay. They may *be provided with gates at one end to allow the ship after being floated to move out of 'thefdock.

The bottom 3 ofthe dry dock is covered with a bed of concrete the center portion 4 thereof being shaped to conform to the shape of the bottom of the boat to be built and raised above the side portions 5. The top surface of the side portions '5 is sloped outwardly and downwardly and suitable channels 6 are arranged at the 'outer side.

Reinforced concrete beams '7 are raised above the top surfacerof the side portions '5 and upon these are arranged the steel rails 8.

The bents 9 are formed with their inner sides 10 conformingto the shape of the bilge and side of the hull of the ship and the bottom beams 11 thereof are provided with cast iron shoes 12 'to rest upon the rails 8. The beams 7 and rails 8 slope outwardly and downwardly so that when the bents "are moved outwardly they will also recede or draw away from the hull with aslight downward movement, the inner edges 13 of the bents abutting the shoulder portion 14 "of the center 4 of the base.

The bents are of any desirable length and construction, being preferably formed of reinforced concrete and the meeting or abutting edges of the successive bents are adapted to overlap to form perfect joints.

The threaded shafts 15 are supported in bearings upon the beams 7 and extend into nuts 16 embedded in the lower beams 11 of the bents and similar shafts 17 and nuts are arranged in the upper structure of the bents, being supported in suitable brackets 18 arranged upon the inner wall of the dry dock structure.

Vertical shafts 19 are supported in suitable brackets secured to the side wall of the dry dock and are operatively connected by suitable beveled gearing with the shafts 15 and 17 so that the rotation of the vertical shaft will efiect the simultaneous rotation of the threaded shafts 15 and 17 to move the bents inwardly or outwardly upon their supporting rails. e

lVhen the bents are placed in position to form the complete mold for the outer wall of the ships hull a suitable truss structure 20 is supported from the tops of the bents and suspended from'this truss structure is a scaffolding 21 of light beams and angles supporting the inner wall 22 of the mold and the molds 23 for the longitudinal keels.

This interior structure is adapted to be disconnected piece by piece or in sections as the filling of the mold becomes completed and the various beam structures required for decks, etc, can be temporarily suspended from this scafiolding in any desirable manner.

The bottom 3 is preferably provided with tunnels 24 extending longitudinally of the bottom and itrom which suitable openings extend into the interior of the dry dock. These tunnels will be provided with suitable inlet gates so that when desired water through the tunnels 24. and coincidently water is pumped into the interior of the hull and the dock is filled. The shell of the ship is thus completely surrounded, both inside and out with water and there will consequently be no stress upon it and it will be fully supported by the mold bents.

' The ship is allowed to remain under these conditions for a period of about seven days,

7 so as to thoroughly cure the concrete in imincision. When this has been effected the water is pumped from the interior and also from the dry dock surrounding the exterior of the hull after which the bents are withdrawn successively from contact with the hull. When this has been accomplished and the hull cleared entirely from the molds, the water is again turned into the dock to gradually flood the same and float the ship from its base. The launching is thus efi ected without strain upon the more or less green concrete of which it is constructed.

In a method such as described when the molds for a standard ship are made, they can be assembledtogether very rapidly and when the ship is completed can be withdrawn with equal rapidity and without being damaged or broken up in any way and immediately the ship has been removed from the. dry dock these same molds can be reassembled and used indefinitely.

I have described the structure of one dry dock but it will be readily understood that any desirable number of these docks can be built together in a Very eflicacious manner.

What I claim as my invention is 1. A method of building concrete ships, consisting in molding the hull within a dry dock, then coincidently filling the dry dock and hull with water while the hull is supported by the molds to eifect the curing of the concrete then pumping out the water and removing the molds.

2. A method of building concrete ships, consisting in arranging withina dry dock a plurality of mold sections to form a mold, then molding the hull of the ship, then coincidently flooding the interior of the hull and the dry dock to completely surround the molded shell with water, allowing it to cure, then removing the water, then witlr drawing the mold sections from contact with the hull, and finally flooding the dock and floating the ship.

3. A method of building concrete ships, consisting in arranging within a dry dock a plurality of separable mold sections toform a mold, then molding the hull, then curing the hull, then withdrawing. the mold sections intact with a downward and outward movement to clear the hull, then flooding the dock and floating the ship from its base.

ALFRED RICHLEY. 

